Fairmount Park Racetrack is a horse racing track in Collinsville, Illinois, a part of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The track hosts Thoroughbredflat racing. It is one of three horse racing venues currently active in Illinois, and the only one outside the Chicago, Illinoismetro area. The track also featured Standardbredharness racing, but discontinued it in 1999. The track opened in 1925. The racingsurface is a one-mile dirt oval, with straight chutes for six furlong and 1¼ mile races. Ogden Corporationbought the track in 1969. In 2000, Ogden sold the track to Bill Stiritz, then the chairman of Ralston Purina. Fairmount Park offers simulcast wagering from tracks throughout the country. It also operates four off-track betting facilities in Alton, Carbondale, Springfield and Sauget, Illinois; a fifth OTB facility in Grayville, Illinoisclosed in early 2007. As recently as 1997, Fairmount Park offered as many as 232 live racing days per year. But in recent years, the track has suffered greatly with the advent of riverboat casinos in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Racing dates have declined to 90 per year, on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. In 2007, track managementannounced a plan to build a 20,000-seat amphitheater at the track and expand live racing, pending approval by state lawmakers to allow slot machines to be installed, similar to racinos in nearby locations. When the legislature did not approve slots in its regular session, Fairmount management applied to the Illinois Racing Board for 90 days of live racing, but said that if lawmakers did not approve relief for horse tracks in its November veto session, the track would only run 60 days, citing declining attendance and betting handle, competition from casinos, and overpayment of the horsemen's account for purses. The track's general manager claimed that purses at the track were less than half that of similar tracks in neighboring Kentucky and Indiana. The request was granted with those conditions intact.
